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Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply. We're also joined in studio with Frank Bissignano. He's a Social Security Commissioner, but more importantly, he was an administrative officer at Citigroup.
He's worked at various places, right, at Lower Manhattan, working to restore global banking systems and everything, helped stand everything up after the nine eleven attacks. And then Donald Trump just picked him up and said, I need you to help me with Social Security.
So Frank, welcome. What are your thoughts about being here today? And do you remember 24 years ago? I had the same drive in that I had twenty-four years ago this morning. It was the same type of day, a beautiful day.
It was a Tuesday, as I best remember. I was headed into a staff meeting. Uh uh when uh The first plane hit uh My my office stared at the towers. Seven World Trade Center was wonderful. What a working building.
I was working for Citigroup. I was the chief administrative officer and the head of deputy head of operations and technology reporting to Bob Druskin, Sandy Weill. And uh I saw a big hole in the building. Uh and then I saw our next plane hit. And I conclude, we had a plan for if the towers went down and we executed the plan.
Seven World Trade Center was outbuilding, and people were telling Tom Jones, who ran asset management, to stay in the building. And I was like, Tom, I'm staring at nothing, you gotta get out.
So we vacated that, marched up to 34th Street, where a recovery center was.
Some people, we had a trading desk set up in Rutherford, New Jersey. And began the journey.
So life-changing. I saw everything you can imagine. And 10 years later, I was diagnosed with throat cancer. And you know, do you smoke a lot? No, I don't smoke at all.
Do you drink?
Well, I have a little wine. Where were you at 9-11? Uh I was in lower Manhattan and never left.
So how did you deal with that? Uh you know, um I had I had three I had Three kids, one which was six months old. Uh, and so I uh I I got dressed and went to work every day to fake everybody out in my house while I got radiation and chemotherapy 'cause you you know Didn't tell your family? No, they knew, but I said it's a hundred percent curable, which it is, but not a hundred percent, I'm gonna get cured. as you all know.
So I'd go in every morning, get radiation, go to the office. Uh I reported to Jamie Diamond at the time. And every once in a while go get chemotherapy. Right.
So you're still monitoring that data. Five years later. I mean, you go through five years. You're supposed to be free after five years.
So I'm going to behave like I am fifteen years ago. Were they willing to diagnose it as nine eleven related back then? Yeah. They said it they said it immediately when when I said first two things. They were like, Where are we on nine eleven?
It wasn't where I was on nine eleven, I never left. I never left. We had to get the stock exchange up and running. And so we came back down there and we were a different type of first responders. We were technologists building Lower Manhattan back together.
Yes, I went I was actually on the air uh that day with Fox and friends. And here's how it sounded when the planes hit the building. And we always play the whole TikTok of all the attacks and the collapse of the buildings all the way through one day a year. Cut seventeen. We have a very tragic alert for you right now.
An incredible plane crash into the World Trade Center here at the lower tip of Manhattan. It's speculated that the plane is as big as a 737. It looked originally like it just hit three floors. As I see from this angle, it seems like more than three floors. And perhaps what's most disturbing, Edie, I think, is the time of day.
This time of morning is when people pour into that building, and it's usually next to pull. And right away, you do know that it was a clear day, so it's hard to imagine pilot error, right? Yeah, 100%. 100%. It was a big hole in a big building and Then another plane comes flying into it.
Right.
How many friends do you think or acquaintances did you lose that day? I lost a lot. I lost a lot. I mean, I was very focused on two things. You know, we had sixteen thousand people in Lower Manhattan and getting them out.
Um, we lost six. Uh, but we also had we were the largest financial institution in the world and we had to keep the economy going. Right.
And I had responsibility also, you know, for the whole recovery and to make sure we could get all the money in and get all the money out. And so I'm blessed that I'm here to talk about it. That day I thought I wouldn't be able to put my head on the pillow for the things I saw. But I think 'cause I was so engrossed in the recovery and to keep the economy going, that I was able to block a lot of things out. What do you just left the ceremony?
Yeah, I just left downtown. What was it like? Uh this was a uh uh a very very uh obviously uh everybody's affected. what happened to a great man, Charlie Kirk.
So it's a kinda interesting moment this morning because there's devastation for many around that. And It was very, very well done. You know, you have grandchildren now reading. When I went to the first time it uh when there was no memorial, but we still had the reading of the names in the first anniversary, You know, you didn't have children and grandchildren reading. You know, we had seven and eight-year-olds reading and.
It's very, very moving. I think it's always done so well and tastefully. And I thought to myself today. I hope this goes on forever. But there's no reason that it doesn't go on forever.
And yes, it may be a great-grandchild at some point. Right.
So people remember. Yes. Yes, never forget. Absolutely. um back on that day and all of us remember it so well together.
Um Here is George W. Bush. Here he is famously on top of a fire truck, Cut 26. I can hear you, the rest of the world hear you. And the people And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
So, I mean, that day, that was a few days after. That was late Friday afternoon. But you guys had a preexisting plan because the 93 bombing said stay. Or go. And then when it was supposed to be the opposite, and evidently, they wanted people to get out as quick as possible in 93 with the bombing, as opposed to this.
Yeah. So you guys had to change it, and you worked on that prior to this? Yeah, I mean, we had I'd sit around a table with the team from all disciplines and say, if the tower is ever going down, I don't want to be sitting around arguing, we're going to have a plan. And we executed the plan. We built out a recovery site in New Jersey where our developers were for our traders to be able to operate.
Um so I think we executed the plan well, but you know um By the good grace of God. By the good grace of God. The job you guys did at the memorial is unbelievable, the 9-11 Memorial. What was the approach there? I mean, we I've never seen anything like that.
And and w w or what are you proudest of about it?
Well, I mean, you gotta you gotta give Mike Bloomberg, Mayor Bloomberg, you know, I was there uh right next to him today, so much credit because without him, It went amazing. You had a huge role in that, right? Yeah. Well, we all did, but you know, it's a team. And then, you know, we went on to build a performing arts center down there, too.
I mean, you know, if you come to New York, you don't realize what was there because what is there today?
So it's a beautiful place to walk around. It's park-like, and it has all the history. For people to go and for generations to come to understand what happened on that tragic day. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So you'd mentioned about Charlie Kirk and what happened. Did you have interactions with him?
I did not. Did you have a brief political career? I mean, this is the closest to politics you've gotten. I did not. But, you know, I could tell you that I have a 16-year-old son who goes to a grade school in New Jersey, Dilborden.
And they were all devastated. The youth of America, I think, was really touched by Charlie. Kirk. Not to say my wife isn't very touched, and our family wasn't. But I think his reach was so large.
You know, I don't know you could relate it to Martin Luther King, I think. It's just it's just uh an amazing leader who was out there for people, who was balanced. It's it's devastating. I think it's devastating to America. Does it make you worry about the direction of the politics in America?
Yes. Yes. I mean it makes me worry about a million things. You know, it was it was only a little over a year ago Out present. was shot at.
Right, so you can't ignore these things happening. And uh, you know, vigilance matters a lot, but you know. There's no stopping somebody two hundred feet away or two hundred yards away Who's a sharpshooter? Lastly, coming up, we have a year to talk about it, Frank, but next year, are there any special things planned? Are they leaning on the table?
Well, I said to the team today as we're walking in and obviously I was next to Beth Hillman, who's the president. And uh it'd been started two years ago, the planning for the twenty-fifth.
So, I think it will be a fabulous celebration. A lot of work to do between here and there. Uh but I think it'll be an amazing moment. for the country. You know, uh I had the opportunity to be at the Pentagon.
today, uh given my job. But I've never not been down at the site ever since year one. And I thought to myself, I'm sure it's going to be a tremendous celebration at the Pentagon, but I don't know that I could ever see myself not in Lower Manhattan. I understand.
So it'll be 25 years coming up, and think about New York, too. Between what's going to be happening at the UN next week, where the leader of Syria was once a member of Al-Qaeda, and he's going to be coming here now. You have a Muslim mayor who's in the frontrunner now. And you have the World Financial Center every single day.
So It is an interesting time to be in New York, and the president of the United States is going to be at the Yankee Stadium tonight. I know.
So it's crazy. It's a national show, but it's hard not to see. Relief pitches in the middle. And they will have to work tonight. A relief pitch.
It would be nice for a change. It would be nice for a change. The last two nights of God. Two, two games, and it just gets blown up. And that's what they did at the trading deadline.
They both set up their bullpen, but it's blown up. Hey, Frank, thanks so much. It's great. It's been great to get to know you. Frank Bissiano, the Social Security Commissioner, but is so much more.
He's taken all his great financial knowledge and is trying to straighten out our Social Security system. That's cold service. Hey, I'm Trey Gaddy, host of the Trey Gaddy podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com.
